


Magnificent

by SeveralSmallHedgehogs



Series: Soft Mighty Nein [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Cuddle Pile, Fluff, Gen, Magnificent Mansion, Mighty Nein as Family, just more the tm9 I guess, mentioned Mollymauk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-27 21:53:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19798519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeveralSmallHedgehogs/pseuds/SeveralSmallHedgehogs
Summary: Caleb casts Magnificent Mansion, though his definition of magnificent is a little different than some people's. The Nein take some time to explore and settle into their new rooms, but the truth is, they're pretty used to sleeping in a pile at this point.





	Magnificent

**Author's Note:**

> mag·nif·i·cent  
> /maɡˈnifəsənt/  
> adjective  
> 1\. impressively beautiful, elaborate, or extravagant; striking.

“Don’t set up the tents,” Caleb told the rest of the Nein, completely out of the blue, when they stopped for the night.

Fjord gave him a strange look. “Why not?”

“Did you learn some more magic?” Jester asked, brightening. “Can you make a magic campsite for us?”

Caleb didn’t reply. Instead, he took a stone out of his pocket and began rubbing it with his thumb like a worry stone, muttering to himself. The others pulled their things off their horses, throwing glances at Caleb every few seconds. They knew by now that he wouldn’t respond if they tried talking to him.

Ten minutes later, Caleb finished the incantation and suddenly there was a doorway in front of him, shimmering faintly. He turned to the others. “All right,” he said. “This should be, ah, a little more comfortable than the bubble.”

“What is it?” Jester asked, already flouncing through the doorway. As Nott followed her, they both exclaimed, “Wow!”

“What?” Beau trotted in, and then Yasha, and then Caduceus after her, crouching a little to get through the doorway. Fjord shot one last glance at Caleb, and then stepped through with Caleb right behind him.

On the other side of the doorway was a largeish room with rough stone walls and a wooden floor. Just inside the door was a small sitting area with a stone-and-mortar fireplace, and just beyond that, a plain wooden table with three chairs around it. In the far wall was a small kitchen with a wood stove and a basin, and beyond the kitchen was a staircase to a second floor.

Jester immediately ran to the stairs. Nott followed her and they bumped up the stairs together. “Wow!” Jester shouted again. “This is _really cool,_ Caleb!”

“These are… some very low ceilings,” Caduceus remarked. He was standing with his head craned forward to keep it from hitting the support beams. “Not to be ungrateful, or anything,” he added.

“Sorry,” Caleb said. “Just give me a second.” And then, without so much as a word from him, the walls stretched upwards and the ceiling rose until Caduceus could comfortably stand up straight.

Caduceus smiled. “Much appreciated.”

Caleb nodded, not looking at him directly.

“Hey, Caleb,” said Fjord. “How come there are only three chairs?”

“Sorry,” Caleb murmured again, waving his hand. The table and chairs became a wooden table with benches on either side, creating enough room for all of them to sit down. With that done, Caleb stood against the wall, watching the others explore the space.

Beau headed over to lean against the wall next to Caleb with her arms crossed. She eyed him, but his expression was as blank as ever. Finally, she asked, “Is this from memory?”

He turned his head a little, but still didn’t look at her. “Hm?”

“Is this your house? From memory?”

For a long, long moment, Caleb didn’t respond. He didn’t move. He didn’t give any indication that he’d even heard her.

Then, at last, he turned to face the front again. “It’s… based on it,” he told her.

She looked around at the stove, the sitting area, the stone walls. “It’s nice,” she said.

“I made some changes.”

“Like what?”

“Well, there were not so many rooms upstairs.”

She straightened. “Wait. Do we all have our own rooms?”

He nodded. “I assume that everybody will be able to find theirs.”

"Oh, man,” Beau said, pushing off of the wall and heading for the stairs. “I haven’t had my own room since…” She trailed off as she climbed the stairs. At the top of them, she found a wood-paneled hallway lined with wooden doors. Caduceus was just pulling his head out of one room, and he smiled down the hall at her. “This is really nice,” he said.

Beau trotted down the hall and peered through the doorway in front of him. The room inside had gray stone walls, like the inside of the temple at Blooming Grove. The floor was made of the same stone and dirt. In place of a bed, there was a huge cot that looked like it was probably large enough to fit Caduceus. The light sources were glowing crystals jutting from the ceiling and a few spots on the walls, and the stones and mortar were dotted with clumps of moss. Caduceus walked over to one and touched it, and immediately, tiny purple flowers budded and bloomed over the green. Caduceus grinned. “I like this room,” he said.

Beau moved on down the hall, towards Jester and Nott’s voices. She found them in what looked like a regular inn room, except the walls were flat and smooth as if primed for painting. A desk sat in one corner, and against the wall opposite the bed, there was even a small shrine bearing the Traveler’s symbol.

Jester was jumping up and down on the bed, and when she saw Beau in the doorway she called in between bounces, “This! Is! The! Best! Spell! Ever!”

Beau grinned. “Nice. Have you guys found mine?”

“Yes! It’s right over here!” Jester hopped off the bed and pushed past Beau into the hallway.

Beau’s room turned out to be across from Jester’s, and it, too, looked like a regular inn room, which was fine. There was a punching bag hanging from the ceiling, though, and a rack and a cleaning kit for her staff.

The next room they checked was also plain, but there was a small shrine to the Stormlord and a book on the bed. Beau went over and opened it, and discovered that it was a book full of drawings of flowers, with their names and where they were found on each opposite page. It looked like Caleb had done his best to figure out at least a little bit what each of them might want, based on what he knew about them.

My room next!” Nott announced, darting into the hallway. Beau left the book and followed her, though she noted that they left the door across from Caduceus’s room alone.

“Whose is that one?” she asked.

“We already looked in there,” Jester said breezily. “It’s regular. There’s a hammock. I’m pretty sure it’s for Fjord.”

“It smelled like seawater,” Nott put in. “I’m not _ever_ going in there again.” As she spoke, she stopped at one of the remaining doors and pushed it open. As soon as she stepped inside, though, her expression softened and she took a couple more steps forward and looked around. There was a bed and a desk with a small box that, when Beau opened it, proved to be full of alchemy equipment. But the notable part of the room was the stacks and stacks of blankets taking up one corner.

Beau frowned. “What are those for?”

“A blanket bed,” Nott told her, trotting over to pull blanket out of the middle, which sent the stack toppling over. “I used to make these… with Yeza, and Luc. I told Caleb about making them before, and he really does remember everything…” She started unfolding the blankets, shaping them on the floor into something almost resembling a nest.

“Oh, like this?” Jester asked, going over to help her. With the two of them working together, they quickly ran out of blanket and Nott climbed into her new construction. “This is really nice,” she said, snuggling into her blankets.

“Is the room across from you Caleb’s?” Beau asked, heading over to open it. But the knob didn’t turn. She frowned and rattled it. “It’s locked. Nott, can you pick it?”

Nott arched an eyebrow. “I _could,_ ” she said.

“Hey,” said Jester abruptly. “There are eight doors.”

She, Beau, and Nott all looked at each other, and then at the remaining door. Slowly, Beau walked over and opened it.

The inside looked like a regular inn room, like the rest, save for some major differences. One of those differences was a tapestry taking up most of one wall; specifically, the tapestry of the Platinum Dragon that they’d buried Molly in. The bed was a smaller cot, and there was a brightly-colored rug covering the floor, and an intricately-carved coatrack in the corner, beside a second rack that seemed like it should have held two swords.

Beau stepped into the room and turned in a circle as Jester and Nott filed in behind her. Caduceus must have noticed the sudden absence of noise, because he ducked in behind them and looked around.

Caduceus was the first to speak. “You friend really liked bright colors, didn’t he?”

“Yeah,” Beau said quietly. “That, uh… that tapestry was his. He probably…” She paused and snorted. “He probably would have wanted something fancier,” she said.

Jester replied, “I think he would’ve been fine with this, though. Molly was always fine with anything.”

They were quieter when they filed out of the room and dispersed. Beau was the last to leave, and she paused to shut the door. Immediately she went back downstairs and found Caleb sitting at the table, reading a book. He glanced up when she came in, but he didn’t really acknowledge her until she sat down across from him and put her elbows on the table.

“This place is really nice,” she told him.

He slowly closed his book, and he nodded. “I am glad you think so. This house was… well, it was in my family for a long time.” His voice was quiet. He still hadn’t lifted his gaze from the desk.

Beau was quiet for a second. “I noticed you made a room for Molly.”

There was a long pause. “It’s… honorary,” Caleb murmured at last. “And… we don’t know how that magic, the kind that brought him back, would have worked. If he ever returns, there will be a place for him here.”

Beau didn’t have much to say to that. Before she could come up with anything, she heard thuds upstairs and Jester called her. She looked at Caleb and saw that he’d already opened his book again. So she told him, “See you later,” and headed upstairs to see what Jester wanted.

That night—or maybe early the next morning—Caleb woke with a start when something crossed the silver thread he’d set around his door. In an instant he’d rolled out of bed and onto his feet, but when his eyes focused on the small figure in the doorway, he relaxed. “Nott,” he said. “What, ah, why are you awake at this hour?”

She pulled her arm back across the thread—she must have figured he’d set it and so she’d triggered it on purpose. “I couldn’t sleep,” she told him.

“We’re completely safe here,” Caleb told her, deciding not to acknowledge that he’d set the thread anyway. He’d tried sleeping without it, but after an hour of tossing and turning and glancing at the fake window and his door, he’d gotten up and set the alarm. “Nobody can get in that I don’t invite in.”

“That’s not it.” Nott rubbed her arm. “I’m just too used to sleeping… sort of in a pile with everyone else, you know?”

Caleb nodded. “I know,” he murmured. “How about… well, you could bring your blankets in here and sleep here with me.”

“That sounds good,” Nott replied, turning to go. She immediately ran into Jester in the hallway. “Sorry if we woke you up,” she told Jester, stepping around her to get back to her room.

But instead of going back to bed, Jester poked her head into Caleb’s room and asked, “Can I sleep in here, too? I can stay on the floor with Nott.”

Caleb blinked. “I… I don’t see why not.”

Jester brightened. “Great! I’ll go get my pillow.”

A few minutes later, just as Nott was dragging the last of her blankets into the room and Jester was setting up her pillow and blankets, Beau appeared in the doorway. Fjord, Caduceus, and Yasha were behind her her. Beau asked, “What the hell are you guys doing?”

“We’re sleeping in here!” Jester said cheerfully. “Since it’s really weird to sleep in my own room after all this time.”

“Alright, cool,” said Beau. “I’ll get my stuff.”

Caduceus leaned down to poke his head into the doorway. “May I join you?” he asked.

“I suppose,” Caleb said, blinking.

“Can I sleep here, too?” Yasha added. “I won’t take up too much space.”

“No, you’re… you’re fine. I mean, yes. Yes. You can.”

Beau returned a minute later with her pillow and blankets, and shortly Fjord came back with his own things, though he didn’t say a word. Everyone began arranging themselves on the floor, sorting out heads and arms and feet. Caleb watched them for a bit before he sighed and pulled his own pillow off the bed. “All right,” he muttered. “Make room for me.” There was some more shifting and scooting as the others made a spot for him.

“Yay!” Jester snuggled against her pillow, grinning. “It’s a slumber party!”

Caleb huffed. He’d ended up sort of sandwiched between Caduceus and Beau, and Nott had curled up with her head near his. Fjord was on Beau’s other side, and Jester had snuggled up to him. Yasha was somewhere on the other side of Caduceus.

Once they were all settled the room went quiet. And for once, Caleb felt uncomfortable with the silence. “Good night,” he said to everyone else.

“Good night, you guys!”

“Good night, Mr. Caleb.”

“Night, guys.”

“G’night.”

"Good night.”

“Good night, Caleb,” Nott said quietly.

**Author's Note:**

> I havent posted in forever because work is stressful and there's stuff happening, and I just wanted to write another cuddle pile, you guys


End file.
